20th Emerald Cup celebrated California cannabis culture’s legacy in Oakland
Congratulations to all the Emerald Cup winners. Seriously. Breeder’s Cup 2x in a row, most awarded cultivar in Emerald Cup History, the underdogs going up top to accept their awards while wearing an ankle monitor. If you know you know, and if you don’t – there will be plenty of people tellin’ you about it. Per ushe, I’m going to focus on the on the ground experience as an attendee. A Participant observer if you will. This year, the 20th year of The Emerald Cup was special because it was the first time the cup had gone to Oakland. Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake reiterated the reasoning for the location in part one of his Emerald Cup recap:
“There were lots of concerns over safety and the challenges of liberal cities like Oakland that are falling apart. We decided it was the right move to unite our farmers and brands with the rich cannabis and cultural history of Oakland. Our motto this year was “Our legacy is your legacy”. For all the flowers and products that came out of the Emerald Triangle and around the state over the past several decades, there were people in the Bay Area, the rest of the cities in the state, and around the country that moved the product.”
On the road to the Emerald Cup
For me, this trip all started with the drive down on Friday morning. For the first time in my personal Emerald Cup attending history, I was driving south from Humboldt County down to the venue as opposed to driving North or West to get to it like most nonfarmer attendees. That means I got to see Area 101 on the drive down. I realized that this would be the same route that many farmers attending the cup over the years would have taken and felt a fleeting sense of connection. Especially given the fact that I had already committed to reporting back to some farmers who had decided that they couldn’t afford to attend this year.
Besides the direction of travel, this year was also different because I got to witness Emerald Cup judging first hand while serving as temp sous chef with Ganjier Chef What The Damn Health (Alex Scherma) at a judging event in Yokayo Ranch.
To anyone that says this competition is rigged, I’m sorry but you’re misinformed.
Legacy Genetics Study Launches at The Emerald Cup
This year was most different though because this was also the first time that the Emerald Cup held a legal cannabis sales taxpayer funded pre-event – the launch of the Legacy Genetics Study which was hosted at UC Berkeley the day before the cup started. The Legacy Genetics Study Launch event was a cathartic and beautiful gathering of heady heads that truly care about legacy genetics, legacy farmers, and legacy as a whole. Richard P. Mendelson, a lawyer well known for helping establish the legal framework for protecting California’s wine industry, gave the opening remarks. Stay tuned for a full recap video and schedule the time to watch the whole thing. Til then, feel free to peruse the Legacy Genetics Study presentation that was given that day and learn more at LegacyCannabis.org.
After that pre-event, I went to Friday night Church at Lotus to catch the Regen Sesh – another 2024 rendition of bringing the hills to the city. There, I ran into some unique Emerald Cup swag that had come all the way from Italy via JonasChillum.
The view just outside Emerald Cup
I had some experiences walking around Emerald Cup that I wanted to share. Walking along the edge, I noticed a tall man eyeing a plant in the Area 101 lounge from outside the fence and talking to himself about its lineage.
He agreed to recreate the moment for a picture and I sat and talked with him for a bit and I learned his name was Louie. Louie and I chopped it up about cat piss, j1, blue dream, durban poison, and sunset sherbet. When I brought up Durban, he told me he had seen the guy that brought it to town walking around earlier. I asked him if it was Ed, and he confirmed. I asked if he had ever attended a previous Emerald Cup back in the day, and he nodded in the affirmative – noting that it was at some location up north not in his backyard like this year. He told me how he’d turn that plant into clones and guerilla grow them around the city like he used to. Whether any of this was true or just my misunderstanding doesn’t matter in the face of the raw reality of living on the streets under the shadow of places like the Henry J. Kaiser Center.
On my way out, walking through the encampment outside of Henry J. Kaiser, I chose to walk on the sidewalk instead of on the blocked off street like most attendees. I wondered what they were scared of, why they avoided treating those outside the Emerald Cup as humans.
While pondering that, I noticed a kid with a shiny new gel blaster looking at me with a bright smile and then felt the platter platter of the rest of his clip. The kid was aiming below the waist and laughing all the while but was gracious enough to dap me up when I walked by and introduced himself and his parents in the nearby RV.
Besides Tim himself, many other speakers alluded to the longstanding tradition of sungrown flower flowing from the Emerald Triangle to the Bay Area – specifically Oakland. Yet the location is the location and the memes are the memes. The economic depression is hitting everything. Walking by a homeless encampment to enter the Emerald Cup, that was a trip. Hearing people plan biffings in front of my face because they saw someone walk from the event to their car to drop off a backpack, that was not a fun feeling.
Knowing shit was about to go down and that I could not stop it. Then realizing that that’s how I feel about the legal industry in general. I repeat: it isn’t a good feeling.
Despite that, all in all, I think The Emerald Cup in Oakland was a great success. I felt a little for the safety of the community but you know what – maybe that is a good reminder for those in the hills about the way it was and how it still is away from the bubble of The Emerald Triangle and its immediate borderlands. A reminder that risk was and still is borne across multiple parties in the game and for everyone: the government is to blame.
Emerald Cup panels hit different
On the first day, I decided to plant myself in the auditorium to listen to as many panels as possible to show support to many fellow budists on stage as well as fellow lovers of sungrown and hashish and hear some breeders talk!
As I went through the show after listening to the inspiring words from that panel, I felt that I had gained a new perspective. The most salient words spoken on that stage that day was a reminder from Lindsay MaHarry about the dominator culture that surrounds us and in particular I can see the contradictions crystallizing around us.
One thing is clear to me at least – despite what bro science and hippy lore has been spread on the internet: Hybridization and sensimilla happened outside the United States first. Californians didn’t invent hybridization nor did they invent sensimilla. Both were appropriated from other cultures as part of the dominator culture which unfortunately still runs rampant in the Emerald Triangle and all over California and the rest of the world.
There are very much still people in this space that need to learn how to check their privilege let alone acknowledge it.
Most interesting to me and my research were the two breeder panels. Getting to listen to Dan from Rebel Grown, Jesse Dodd, Trichome Tortoise, CannaCountry Selections, and Masonic Smoker across different panels was a treat. Shout out to Jimi Devine who held it down as a moderator on stage like a pro. During the Q and A session, he straight up ran around the audience to make sure that those asking questions had a mic and felt included.
Despite my goals, silly me missed the psily panel and the one with Catalyst CEO. I couldn’t resist the temptation to step out to check out the booths and smoke a lil herb since I discovered it wasn’t allowed inside. Smoking and listening to panels is one of my favorite pastimes – and I know I’m not alone.
The panels were so awesome, but seemed not so well publicized at the event. The panels were attended based on social media following with panelists and moderators doing the heavy lifting. That is an established model that works, but so does helping guide people to the panels with physically posted schedules.
As a nexus of cannabis culture, the panels at The Emerald Cup are always of the highest caliber. My hope is that more people catch these panels in future years and that the knowledge dropped on them are not lost forever to the ether.
Booths and Boofs at The Emerald Cup
Apologies in advance if anyone gets offended by me calling booths boofs. Guess you could say English isn’t my first language.
I heard someone say they were underwhelmed by the quantity of booths. In my book, that’s a good thing if the intimate selection of curated vendors are prepared to engage with a public that knows a little more about cannabis than average. After my own walkaround, I understood and concur that I was underwhelmed by the quality of some of the booths.
I remember the last Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa. It was the largest collection of heady heads behind booths I’d ever seen. I bought so many seeds. I learned about so many new cultivars. This year, the booths were not as numerous, but the boofs were.
Walking the floor, I stopped by several boofs where I asked what strain(s) the prerolls are and nobody at the boof could answer the question. If anyone gets offended by me calling a booth like that a boof, I guess you could say that mincing words isn’t part of my love language.
Back when most the entire cannabis industry was cultivating, an Emerald Cup in the middle of August would have been out of the question. Now that the industry is mostly people who don’t touch the plant, and don’t even know about the plant, it’s just fine.
Growers with Longest Flowering Cultivars
There were some non boof flower booths though for sure. I want to take this time to shout out the few brands running longer flowering cultivars in 2024.
Specifically, Ellis Green with their Super Silver Haze and Sense with their Sour Diesel. To whoever in that room that was chopping their diesel or haze early, go take a deep look in the mirror and maybe reach out to Sense or Ellis Green to ask for consultations.
The longest flowering cultivar that I have found that is being grown by a California license right now belongs to Gramlin and is to me still just an UNKNOWN “SATIVA.”
Philip from Gramlin told me about their longest flowering cultivar – which goes to 90 days, but doesn’t get to be experienced as flower because it goes straight to rosin. That, honestly, gives me some hope that there are vapes and edibles that really have strain specific effects, not just flavors. It was loud, I can’t remember the name of the cultivar but Goddamnit there is a real 90 day flower being grown by a licensed grower and actually making it to market. Even if it doesn’t make it to market as flower and goes straight to hash roz… I bet the strain specific edibles and vapes made from that are absolutely fiya.
At the end of the day, longer flowering time doesn’t necessarily mean that the cultivar will be unique versus everything else that’s on the market. One other reason I love covering the Emerald Cup is because they work with SC Labs to provide a real dataset on what cultivars are truly exotic in comparison with what is on the market.
Less than 1% Real ZaZa
So many flower entries this year, but less than 1% of those are different. Those following along with SC Labs’ terpene categories will have noted the addition of the TCSC category this year. I was more focused on the continuing shrinkage of what I call real zaza and what SC Labs calls its “exotics” category. That is, cannabis cultivars that have terpeneoid profiles that do not fit the standard profiles.
SC Labs co-founder Alec Dixon said only two exotic flowers were submitted this year. He immediately noted that one of the breeders that had submitted one of the only two truly exotic – at least according to SC Labs – was also right by the booth – so Alec went to see if he had a sample of the true zaza that I could smell. Unfortunately, as it was the end of the last day – the breeder of one of the only true exotic cultivars in California was fresh out.
I noticed that Alec had made a beeline to Nate from Higher Heights Mendo. I made an educated guess based on a single nug I had sampled at the Soil King Seed Swap in 2023 and asked Alec if the exotic flower was Higher Height’s Carambola. He confirmed that it was.
I suspect that the other exotic was Whitethorn Rose – though I’d be happy to be proven wrong. California needs more real exotics. Real zaza. Not that sprayed shit.
At least based on my life of anecdata, it seems cultivars with unique cannabinoid profiles may be less rare than cultivars with unique terpenoid profiles. One such cultivar that isn’t exotic in smell but is exotic in effect is Emerald Spirit Botanical’s Pink Boost Goddess, which I learned has Sweet Tooth in it via Boost. That was a bit that I learned that day from Cora Genetics whom I had met at that same seed swap in Cloverdale.
If there is anything to lament about the boofs at the Emerald Cup, it is the fact that seed vendors were at an all time low. Despite that, I can report that seed makers were very much still walking around doing trades and sales, though.
True Emerald Triangle OGs like Lempire Seeds were there holding it down in booths and of course so was Humboldt Seed Co. – which I learned also makes seeds at a location outside of Humboldt County in Nevada County.
I want to take this moment to shout out the borderlands of the Emerald Triangle which spread far and wide but were particularly focused in places such as Shasta County, Lake County, Sonoma County, and Nevada County. Also, the urban centers that the flower was being brought to were the far ends of this borderland where stories and cured flower would eventually flow. Once CAMP hit and indoor cultivations started lighting up, the plants started going out as clones. The Emerald Cup is as much about celebrating these borderlands and brokerlands as much as the cultivators.
Some of those clones, along with other fine specimens from around the world, would end up in a gigantic basement nursery in Oakland on their way to home growers around the world thanks to the educational powerhouse awarded with The Emerald Cup’s Oaksterdam. This is the kind of legacy that The Emerald Cup was celebrating in Oakland. The flow of genetics and flower from North to South is part of California’s internal legacy – but let’s never forget that that wasn’t the only direction in which genetics flowed. For better or worse, the script has been flipped. For decades, the indoor growers were growing things bred outdoors. Nowadays, the outdoor growers are growing things bred indoors and suffering for it. There’s za, then there’s real exotics.
This whole transition is part of our legacy and is what was being celebrated at the 20th anniversary of The Emerald Cup because it captures the heart of what made the Emerald Triangle the Emerald Triangle before the DEA ever gave it that moniker and before the Emerald Cup even existed.
No Smoking (indoors) at the Emerald Cup
420 at The Emerald Cup went like this…During the awards show, MC Ngaio let the crowd know:
“Happy almost 420 – you can’t smoke in here.”
I don’t think any city official in the Bay Area dares to raise a stink about the fire permit over Keak Da’ Sneak smoking in the theater at the end of the day.
To me, the analogies are clear as day. Or rather – providing an illumination into the black of night by the Full Moon. Just like all these rules. No smoking here, no growing more than 6 plants here, no growing more than 99 plants there, no vaping here even though they said just no smoking here… In the real world: there’s what’s allowed – then there’s what actually happens.
Emerald Cup 2024 gave that much needed update to me though I thought I knew it already. I like that there were so many out of state and international visitors coming into the most renowned Sungrown competition in the world with the explicit purpose of sourcing straight sungrown flower or just the knowledge of how to replicate sungrown in their home markets. I crave reminders that I don’t know shit.
With that disclaimer: I want to share one general tip with those around the world that I gleaned from my conversations with Tina Gordon from Moon Made Farms as well as some of the breeders she works with. At a Coffee cupping event led by Colleen – Moon Made Farms proudly showed off two cultivars which were bred north of their farm in Humboldt County near Eugene, Oregon across generations and recently made available by Abakaba Genetics: Tuscan Gelato and God’s Breath.
Those cultivars had to be able to survive with less light and more cold – all else equal – and thus arguably do better in less harsh climes with more not less light. Similarly, Jesse Dodd suggests that his gear which is selected in high humidity situations are reportedly more mold resistant in lower humidity situations.
The Emerald Cup got Hyphy/Hyphae
The hyphy hyphae concert at the end of Emerald Cup told the rest of the story of the Bay Area-Emerald Triangle connection. Unfortunately, most Emerald Triangle farmers were long gone by then. Standing there looking around, instead of farmers, I saw people that I recognized as comrades and long standing road warriors from the 101, the 5, i10, i80, and i40.
“Tell me when to go, tell me when to go!”
One line from Keak Da’ Sneak’s performance reverberated for me even sans E-40:
“It’s good, it’s good like the granddaddy.”
The homage to GDP was heard around the world and affected taste preferences in a way that has been replicated again and again. Think about the pounds that have moved in the past. Think about the packs and packages that are moving right now. Think about the metrc tonnes that will move in the future. The Emerald Triangle-Yay Area connection is still strong and served as one of the first links in the transmission of Cali cannabis culture to the rest of the world.
It’s unfortunate that the world has so much fake Cali weed, and there’s no legal way for California’s legacy farmers to benefit from this international renown. As the legal environment evolves, hopefully this can as well.
Tim Blake’s adamant reminder that “We are one legacy” is now burned into my mind as the image of Keak Da’ Sneak performing in front of a tripping alien montage. As the legal fight for freedom and all entheogens rages on, it’s clear that the Emerald Cup’s legacy extends even beyond cannabis.
Hat’s off to the organizers for curating a once in a lifetime party. I wish more people could have experienced it in its full context. I like that the only suit I saw the whole time, was that fresh dapper zooty looking one worn by a genuine multi generational dry farmer from the Triangle. Shout outs to the dry farmers. Anyone who complained about the quality of booths at Emerald Cup 2024 clearly did not spend enough of their time talking dry farming with CannDo Attitude’s Beth at the Sun+Earth booth. Make a note to do so next year.
The Legacy of the 20th Emerald Cup
Tim Blake’s vision for the first reopening of the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts has permanently written The Emerald Cup and the Emerald Triangle-Oakland connection into Bay Area history. Though not as many farmers were there to see it as many may have hoped, the Internet has made the impact of these events felt far more widely than just the trash filled concrete street of Oakland which is yet another land that has seen better days and sits under the same cloud of cannabis economic depression cast by the still falling pound price. The Emerald Cup brought the sunny spirit to a place that some might say has forgotten it. When it comes down to it, legacy isn’t just about the farmers, it’s about everyone that took the risk to have a relationship with the plant back in the day. Which may I remind you all is still the case in most of the country. Tip the snapback to the Blakes and co for throwing a one of a kind party to bring the seemingly disparate ends of the cannabis culture together in one place to reforge the bonds that made Cali weed travel the world one song at a time.
PS: WHAT WAS THAT WEBSITE’S NAME AGAIN?!?
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